Bombers (Gary Numan Song)

Bombers (Gary Numan Song)

"Bombers" is the second single by Tubeway Army, released in 1978. The song is in a somewhat more conventional rock style than their punk-oriented debut, "That's Too Bad", and features sound effects simulating air raid sirens, dive bombers, and machine gun fire. Like its predecessor, the single earned indifferent reviews and failed to chart. It is one of the few recordings in his career which Numan did not produce himself.

Though their musical styles differ, the song's subject matter is generally seen as a thinly disguised rewrite of David Bowie's "Five Years", the opening track of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972). Both songs feature detached observations of urban panic caused by impending catastrophe. "Bombers" (which has nothing to do with another Bowie track of the same name) is sung from the perspective of both a witness on the ground ("Look up, I hear the scream of sirens on the wall") and the bomber pilot ("And me I know just where you are, you see I'm a bomber man").

The B-sides were "Blue Eyes", which harked back to the fast-paced punk style of "That's Too Bad", and "O.D. Receiver", a slower piece whose lyrics reflected a Burroughsian world of drug addiction. All tracks on the original vinyl single were credited to 'Valerian', the name that Numan (born Gary Webb) had chosen for himself prior to Tubeway Army's debut; these would be his last releases using that nom de plume; henceforward he would call himself Gary Numan.

"Bombers" was also later released as a gatefold with the single "That's Too Bad"